Category Archives: Fitness

So, you’re in decent shape, you exercise, you watch what you eat. So why can’t you shed those last ten pounds? Actually, you can—but not by dieting madly or sweating it off the usual way! Luckily, there’s another way to a leaner, stronger body: tweaking your body composition. Muscle cells have twice the metabolic activity of fat cells, which means the higher your ratio of muscle to fat, the higher your metabolism and the more calories you burn at rest.

If you focus on building muscle, you can get leaner without any radical diet interventions or dramatic increases in exercise time- A perfect strategy for winter for winter-and that way, come spring, you’ll be building on fitness gains instead of making up for lost time.

Try this total-body workout from The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises

You will need: A set of Dumbbells (Women should normally go for 2-4 kg weights)

Do 10-15 repetitions of each work until you arrive at 2-3 sets with a few seconds break between sets.MINI-CIRCUIT 1

Exercise 1: Offset Reverse Dumbbell Lunge (Step Back with Right Leg)

The Target: Your thighs, hips and abs
Stand holding a dumbbell in your right hand next to your shoulder, with your arm bent [A]. With your left foot, step backward into a reverse lunge and lower your body until your back knee almost touches the floor [B]. Repeat, until you’ve done all your reps.Exercise 2: Underhand Grip Rear Lateral Raise

The Target: Your upper back and rear shoulders
Grab a pair of dumbbells, and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Bend at your hips, keeping your lower back naturally arched (don’t round it!), and lower your torso until it’s almost parallel to the floor. Let the dumbbells hang at arm’s length from your shoulders, your palms facing forward [A]. Without moving your torso or bending your elbows, raise your arms straight out to your sides until they’re in line with your body [B]. Pause, then slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.

Exercise 3:Offset Reverse Dumbbell Lunge (Step Back with Left Leg)

The Target: Your thighs, hips and abs
Stand holding a dumbbell in your left hand next to your shoulder, with your arm bent [A]. With your right foot, step backward into a reverse lunge and lower your body until your back knee almost touches the floor [B]. Push yourself back to the starting position and repeat until you’ve done all your reps.

MINI CIRCUIT 2

Exercise 1: Swiss Ball Dumbbell Chest Press

The Target: Your chest, triceps, shoulders, abs and hips
Grab a pair of dumbbells and position your body so that your upper and middle back are placed firmly on the ball. Raise your hips so that your body forms a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Hold the dumbbells above your chest with your arms straight and your palms facing out (but turned slightly inward) [A]. Lower the dumbbells to the sides of your chest [B], then press them back up and together. That’s one repetition.

Exercise 2: Goblet Squat

The Target: Your thighs and hips
Grab one end of a dumbbell with both hands and hold it vertically in front of your chest (pretend it’s a big goblet). Stand with your feet slightly beyond shoulder width [A]. Keeping your back naturally arched, push your hips back, bend your knees, and lower your body until the tops of your thighs are at least parallel to the floor [B]. Pause, and push yourself up to the starting position.Exercise 3. Dumbbell RowThe Target: Your back and biceps
Grab a pair of dumbbells, and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and knees slightly bent. Bend at your hips, keeping your lower back naturally arched (don’t round it!), and lower your torso until it’s almost parallel to the floor. Let the dumbbells hang at arm’s length from your shoulders [A]. Pull the dumbbells to the sides of your torso, by raising your upper arms, bending your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades together [B]. Pause, then slowly lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.

MINI-CIRCUIT 3

Exercise 1: Thrusters

The Target: Your thighs, hips, shoulders and triceps
Hold a pair of dumbbells next to your shoulders and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart [A]. Keeping your back naturally arched, push your hips back, bend your knees, and lower your body until the tops of your thighs are at least parallel to the floor [B]. Now push yourself back up, but as you do, press the dumbbells overhead until your arms are completely straight [C]. Lower the dumbbells back to the starting position. That’s one repetition.

Exercise 2: Swiss Ball Hip Raise and Leg Curl

The Target: Your hips, butt and hamstrings
Lie on your back on the floor and place your lower legs on a Swiss ball. Place your arms out to your sides at a 90-degree angle, your palms facing up [A]. Now push your hips up so that your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees [B]. Without pausing, pull your heels toward you and roll the ball as close as possible to your butt [C]. Pause and reverse the motion by rolling the ball back until your body is in a straight line. Lower your hips back to the floor and repeat.

Exercise 3: T-Stabilization

The Target: Your abs, lower back and hips
Assume a push-up position. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your ankles. Tighten your core by trying to make your stomach as skinny as possible, and hold that contraction for the entire exercise [A]. Keeping your arms straight and your body rigid, shift your weight onto your left arm and rotate your torso up and to the right until you’re facing sideways. (Pretend you’re reaching upward.) Pause for three seconds, then lower back down the starting position, rotate all the way to your right and hold again. Continue to rotate back and forth.

Ever heard of Vibrogym or Power Plate? Well if you haven’t you will be hearing about this very soon! These two machines used for vibration training are said to be taking the fitness world by storm! I have been very fortunate to use the the Power Plate pro5 AIRdaptive machine in the gym, and I have to say it has been a very effective way to tone up very quickly.

It is said to provide people with a way to get in some acceleration training, which is said to stimulate the body’s natural response to vibration. This machine can provide this type of training because it is a whole body vibration machine. Currently, whole body vibration therapy and training is quite popular. It is said that top athletes use this approach to increase their fitness results and that this approach can even assist with weight loss and cellulite reduction.

The makers of the Power Plate pro5 AIRdaptive note that acceleration training works by creating instability. With each vibration the body must flex its muscles in order to stay stable and not fall over. The Power Plate actually vibrates about 25 to 50 times per second so that body is said to really be working when on this machine. Most workouts only reach 40% to 60% of the muscles being activated; the power plate activates those, plus the rarely used muscles thus reducing the amount of time required for workouts. It stimulates the whole muscular system at once, not just one muscle after another. Overall, workouts on the Power Plate are said to lead to an improvement in blood flow, increased muscle strength, improved flexibility, decreased cellulite, boosts in bone density, reductions in pain and some major toning!

You can perform static or dynamic movements; typically any gym workout can be done on the machine. Personally I concentrated on using the power plate for toning up exercises such as lunges, squats, press-ups, sit ups, hip raises, and many other exercises .I found it useful that the gym had an exercise chart poster showing images and explaining how to carry out various exercises on the power plate. The vibration sensation felt quite weird at first, but after getting used to it, I felt virtually all my muscles working! I can see a huge difference in my appearance over a week! If you can get a vibrogym or power plate in your gym, I would highly recommend it!